ISLAMABAD, July 7: The combined opposition appeared to have won the first round of battle on the controversial Legal Framework Order (LFO) on Monday when Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali offered on the floor of the National Assembly resumption of the unfinished political dialogue with it.

Up until this offer, the Jamali government had been insisting that the LFO had become part of the Constitution after the ruling pronounced by Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

The PM’s statement came after his meeting with the main opposition leaders Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on the floor of the house.

Informed sources said the decision of talks offer to the opposition was taken in Sunday’s meeting between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali at the army house in Rawalpindi.

The offer was also in line with the views expressed by the president on his return from a four-nation tour the other day that the government will show flexibility on the question of LFO and his uniform.

The main focus of the opposition leaders’ speeches during the debate on the resolution for the removal of deputy speaker Sardar Yaqoob also remained on the LFO as both the treasury and opposition benches exchanged arguments whether or not the MNAs had taken oath under the 1973 Constitution.

A number of speakers pointed out that they had got assurance from the then presiding officer Elahi Bakhsh Soomro that they were being administered oath strictly under the Constitution without the LFO being part of it.

MMA’s Liaqat Baloch said the LFO brought a bad name to the democratic system, as was evident from the fact that the European Union had showed reluctance in acknowledging Pakistan a democratic state.

He also cited the Commonwealth’s refusal to take the country back in its fold on the same grounds. He said the people of the whole country were protesting against the LFO.

Mr Baloch read out from the proceedings of the inaugural session of the lower house when Dr Sher Afgan Niazi had given evidence in the house after having inspected the copy of Constitution shown to him by the presiding officer.

He quoted Mr Niazi to have said: “Whatever I have been shown it is 100 per cent 1973 Constitution, a 1996 edition under which we all shall take oath.”

Giving response to the reading from assembly proceedings, Dr Niazi endorsed his statement, and recounted the event when he had been sent by the house to see and be a witness that it was the 1973 Constitution, and not the one with the LFO attached, under which the oath was being administered.

He said the LFO was made part of the Constitution after the oath-taking was over.

A treasury member Chaudhry Wasi Zafar stressed that the presiding officer, Mr Soomro, had only stated that the oath which he was about to administer was strictly the same which was in the 1973 Constitution, and he had not said that the LFO was not part of it.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman on this occasion addressed the speaker, saying: “The admission by a treasury member (Sher Afgan) that the copy of the Constitution from which the members were given oath was that of 1973, and without the LFO, has put the speaker in a difficult situation”.

He added: “Mr speaker, after your ruling on the LFO, no one will quote you”.

Minister for parliamentary affairs Raza Hirraj interrupted on a point of order in an attempt to stop the opposition’s onslaught against the LFO, saying the LFO had become part of the Constitution after the speaker’s ruling. The opposition’s uproar followed the minister’s point of order which was controlled by the chair. Mr Baloch said the government had admitted that the LFO was a controversial subject without which the several rounds of talks with the MMA and other opposition parties would not have been possible.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed said the LFO will remain the focus of every discussion until the original Constitution of 1973 was restored and the right of amendment for parliament was revived.

He asked the speaker to withdraw his ruling on the LFO or he would remain controversial.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim said: “We will protect and safeguard the Constitution and will resist any amendment to it by an individual”. He refused to accept the LFO as having become part of the Constitution after the speaker’s ruling.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of PML-N said: “Our struggle is not against an individual, but we are fighting for the revival of the 1973 Constitution and any amendment to it must come through parliament”.

PPP leader Qurban Ali Shah said he was also a witnesses who visited the chamber of speaker where Mr Soomro showed the copy of the Constitution under which the members were to be administered oath.